ووترلاند
Fruit Bats
Fruit bats of Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka is home to many types of bats.
Waterland is fortunate to be near one of the largest roosts of bats on the island.
These bats rest during the day and forage for food at night.
Eating habits
Fruit bats in Sri Lanka get most of their nourishment from fruit and nectar. They generally take the fruits from where it is growing and take it to another place to eat.
Their keen sense of smell helps them locate ripe fruit.
Fruit bats leave the trees in the evening to look for food. The time that they leave depends on the temperature and they do not leave at the same time every day.
Generally, the bats at the top of a tree depart first and then bats leave one by one with the bats at the bottom of the tree departing last. Although it may seem that they are leaving as a group, they in fact forage alone. They often travel for dozens of miles looking for food.
As they eat, they spit out seeds or drop seeds, a behavior that disperses seeds across wide areas. This behavior makes bats extraordinarily important in the local ecosystem and the survival of hundreds of types of plants depends on bats.
Breeding Habits
Sex for fruit bats is a fast affair. They copulate for only 1-2 minutes.
Fruit bats generally breed twice per year, with babies being born about 6 months after being impregnated.
Fruit bats generally only produce 1 baby at a time, though they occasionally have 2 babies in a litter.
Colonies often include maternity roosts where pregnant females gather to give birth and raise their young.
Fruit bats start learning to fly when they are about 3 weeks old, but they are not able to be fully independent until they are 2-3 months old.
Mothers carry or cling to their babies until they can fly and forage. Baby bats drink their mother's milk.
Fruit bats can reproduce when they are around 1 year old.
Appearance
Fruit bats have large eyes and a dog- or fox-like face, hence the nickname flying fox.
Their wings are really membranes that stretch between long finger bones.
They lack the elaborate nose and ear structures of many insect-feeding bats because they navigate more by sight and by smell rather than advanced ultrasonic echolocation.
